miss the boat

1. Fail to understand something, as in I'm afraid our legislator missed the boat on that amendment to the bill . [Mid-1900s] Also see miss the point .

2. Fail to take advantage of an opportunity, as in Jean missed the boat on that club membership . This expression, which alludes to not being in time to catch a boat, has been applied more widely since the 1920s.

Related Words

• confuse
• miscalculate
• misconstrue
• misinterpret
• misjudge
• misread
• overestimate
• overlook
• underestimate